Poison— invisible, unknown, hard to detect and deadly— taps into hard-wired anxieties about the risks of the world around us. From ancient times to the modern age, it has always created more fear than any other threats.In A Basilisk Glance: Poisoners from Plato to Putin, author Robert Templer takes us through the dark maze of poison. He traces its path from when Hercules dipped his arrows in the blood from the severed head of the Hydra to the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War in 1980s, from the death of Socrates to the use of toxins as a weapon of assassination, from the mass suicide of Jonestown in 1979 to the sarin attack in the Tokyo metro system.Today, as the war in Ukraine rages, we are reminded of the use of radioactive and nerve weapons by Russian President Vladimir Putin to kill his opponents. His targets— like other victims of poison through the ages— know that they are never safe; a cup of tea, a door handle or even their own underwear might be tainted with a deadly toxin.
In Shadows and Wind, Robert Templer paints a fascinating and fresh picture of a country usually viewed with hazy nostalgia or deep suspicion. Here is Hanoi, an increasingly tense and troubled city approaching its millennium but uncertain of its direction. Here are people emerging from a long wilderness of malnutrition, discovering a new lifestyle of leisure and luxury. And everywhere are the anomalies that burst the bubble of optimism: a vastly expensive luxury hotel sitting empty in an unknown town six hours from an international airport; museums crammed with fake exhibits. And there remains the one-party Communist state, still wrapped in secrecy and corruption, and making for an uneasy bedfellow with the rapacious capitalism it now encourages.Drawing on hundreds of interviews in Vietnam and years of research, Robert Templer has produced the first in-depth examination of the problems facing modern Vietnam. Shadows and Wind is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Vietnam that now has emerged from a century of conflict with both foreign powers and with itself.
Places and books like Rosslyn Chapel and The Da Vinci Code have focused attention on Scotland's Knights Templar. Who they were and what they did has been touched upon, but never properly explored until now. They were close advisors to Scotland's early kings; they were major property owners and respected landlords in a harsh and unforgiving time; and they were secretive and arrogant. But did they really flee from France to Scotland just prior to their arrest in 1307? Did they fight with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314? And how did the Templars continue on after Bannockburn? In The Knights Templar and Scotland Robert Ferguson intertwines Templar and Scottish history, from the foundation of the order in the early twelfth century right up to the present day. Including a comparison of the arrest of the Templars in France with the Templar Inquisition at Holyrood, and an examination of the part they played at Bannockburn, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in history of the Knights Templar.
Robert Lomas is a real-life Dr. Robert Langdon! Co-author of The Hiram Key, the bestseller that Dan Brown notes as his inspiration for the Roslin Chapel–set climax of The Da Vinci Code, is a renowned freemasonry historian and truth-seeker. In Turning the Templar Key, Lomas reveals the origins of the Knights Templar and the historical context for Dan Brown’s thrillers. Buy this book if you couldn’t get enough of The Lost Symbol and want to discover more about the exciting and mysterious symbols, puzzles, codes, and characters that were derived from Lomas’ research and writings. Lomas investigates the facts, challenges the conspiracy theorists, and guides you on an inspiring and complex quest to uncover the truth, explain the motives, and document—for the very first time—the genesis of the Templar Freemasonry.
Delve into the myth and mystery of the Knights Templar with essays by Lynn Picknett, Robert Lomas, Stephen Dafoe, Sandy Hamblett, and other experts. Much has been written about the group of fourteenth-century warrior monks known as the Knights Templar. Some authors, such as Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, portray them as folk heroes wrongly accused. Others disagree, saying the Templar story is ultimately one of greed, deception, and idolatry. Just who were the Knights Templar? And what is their legacy? In The Templar Papers, author and historian Oddvar Olsen has assembled a veritable Who’s Who of experts to unravel the mystery. Instead of rehashing previous scholarship, this book delves into new aspects of Templar lore, such as the origins of the order and its supposed survival after 1314. It attempts to answer the following: Were the Templars devil worshippers who venerated a mysterious head? Was the head that of John the Baptist? What exactly did they find in Solomon’s Temple? Did they keep, and later hide, the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant? You’ll also discover the Templar link to Mary Magdalene and the Freemasons, including answers to questions such as: Were Jesus and Mary lovers or, in fact, husband and wife? Did Mary give birth to a child after Jesus’ death? Did Freemasonry originate from the Templars? The Templar Papers offers the inquisitive reader several lifetimes of research and insight. This is a distinctive and truly unique compilation that will stimulate your mind and settle the controversy.
Were the Templars wiped out or did they survive by starting new Orders to preserve their secrets? Why were the Knights Templar forcibly disbanded? What happened to their legacy? Did they survive disguised as other Orders?
Was Jesus a Freemason? The discovery of evidence of the most secret rites of Freemasonry in an ancient Egyptian tomb led the authors into an extraordinary investigation of 4,000 years of history. This astonishing bestseller overturns our understanding of history and raises questions that have challenged some of Western civilization's most cherished beliefs. "From the Paperback edition.
For almost seven and a half centuries, a piece of cloth was venerated because it bore the image of the crucified Christ. However, but results of carbon dating have shown that the fabric could not have predated 1260. Now new evidence conclusively proves that it is not a face...yet neither is it the image of Jesus Christ. In the follow-up to their groundbreaking first book, The Hiram Key, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas continue their research into the mysteries of Freemasonry and the true historical Jesus, and uncover the precise time and place of the shroudÆs creation. The answer to the great mystery of the Shroud of Turin will surprise and astonish as the authors unlock the secrets of abandoned Freemason rituals and the man who would be called the Second Messiah.
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